Short Attention Spans

The Internet worries me for other reasons. I have always been a reader, so the Internet has enhanced my reading, not lessened it. But in a country where reading habits are already so poor, I have to wonder what it is doing to the young.

In a thought-provoking piece in today's Star, Marina Mahathir expresses her concerns that the internet is creating a generation with short attention spans, and no capacity to read longer texts.

Incidentally, Marina isn't quite right when she says there's no male equivalent to chick lit.  It's often called lad-lit or a bit less politely, but slightly more poetically, as dick-lit!

Why Language is Important

We live in a world now that’s so overawed by the performance of the computer or a motor car but not the language that can be used to sing paeans to them. We are in danger of losing our powers of thought and speech.

In a column in the New Sunday times today Wan A. Hulaimi (Awang Goneng)  discusses the latest data on the under achievement of British school leavers :

A study of 16-19 year olds by Shefffield University last year suggested that 17 per cent of them are illiterate ... (and) even among those who read and write, literacy skills have not been much improved since the 1980s.

And then he turns the questions back on Malaysia  where :

For so long we have relegated literature and the appreciation of language and words to the second tier whilst science and the quantum theory have been relentlessly pursued. ...We diverted funds into the sciences and engineering and medicine to fulfil the national need, and then it became fashionable to choose the so-called heavy options as nation after nation churned up more engineers and doctors and oceanographers than deep readers of books. ...  we have relegated the humanities to the academic sissy and those of imprecise minds and dreamy looks.

There is no doubt at all that science and maths are important, but really are our Malaysian schools challenging our students to use language and to actually use it as a tool for thought? I really don't think so.

Why Kids Need Books

Just the presence of books in the home boosts your child's chances of success in education, a major study by Nevada University [via] has shown.  More than 70,000 people in 27 countries were interviewed to gauge the effect of family circumstances on educational chances. Among the findings :

• Keeping just 20 books in the home can boost children’s chances of doing well at school
• Regular access to books has a direct impact on pupils’ results, irrespective of parents’ own education, occupation and social class
• Children coming from a “bookish home” remained in education for around three years longer than young people born into families with empty bookshelves. 
• Preliminary findings suggested that history and science texts had the greatest benefit.

Says Dr Mariah Evans (above) who lead the study :

The results of this study indicate that getting some books into their homes is an inexpensive way that we can help these children succeed. Even a little bit goes a long way.

One wonders of course whether the presence of an e-book reader in the home would achieve as much?

Schools Get Reading Material and Michelle Donates Her Books

This is certainly a big step in the right direction .  As World Book and Copyright Day kicks off, The Star reports that 1,000 secondary schools are each to get reading material worth RM1,000 to encourage youngsters to read. Primary schools will be targeted next. Hope that all the schools in the country eventually benefit from this initiative and that this isn't a on-off donation.  Up and down the country school libraries need stocking well if we are to have a younger generation of readers.

And if we had any doubts about Reading Ambassador Datuk Michelle Yeoh taking her task seriously, she is planning to set up a corner for her books in the National Library.  She also says that she reads 10-15 books a month, mostly work related.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Maha­thir Mohamad  has also been appointed a campaign ambassador.

For Love of Books

While we debate who should be "reading ambassadors" to stir interest in reading in Malaysia, an article in The Jakarta Globe tells us an inspiring story about an ordinary Indonesian woman, construction worker and mother of two, Kiswanti, who has been able to drive home the message that everyone deserves access to books.

(Thanks, Amir, for posting this link on my Facebook page today.)

When Pretty Faces Just Aren’t Enough

Yeoh and Dr Sheikh Muszaphar are not selling cars or soft drinks – we need more than just a pretty face to promote reading. We need reading ambassadors who read, and who are already actively involved in promoting literacy and reading.

Pretty faces aren't enough when it comes to choosing reading ambassadors says Daphne Lee in StarMag, picking up the debate :

The United States has a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, while Britain has a Children’s Laureate. Both posts acknowledge the importance of encouraging children to read.... An important criterion in the selection of the National Ambassador is his/her “ability to relate to children”. The ambassador must also be able to communicate “well and regularly” with young people. And both positions require respected authors or illustrators.

But before we should even be thinking about such a position, she says, we have to create better access to books, and children should be read to on a daily basis by their teachers. (This is for sure something that helped me to fall in love with books.)

Suitable Reading Ambassadors?

Jacqueline Pereira in Starmag today questions the suitability of the "pretty ‘ambassadors’" actress Datuk Michelle Yeoh and spaceflight participant Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, chosen to promote reading in Malaysia :

I would have at least expected one of our many Malaysian writers to have made the reading campaign’s “ambassador” list. Whether of local or international fame, we have quite a few to choose from: Tash Aw, Karim Raslan, Rani Manicka and Beth Yap spring to mind. ... Most writers read, right? Especially if it is an internationally acclaimed writer, short-listed for a literary award, etc.... So a writer would have been a great choice, or someone who is clearly committed to promoting reading, like StarMag’s Tots to Teens columnist Daphne Lee or someone who has demonstrably done something to show their interest in reading.

I'm not too worried about these two being chosen to promote books (provided that they are indeed avid readers and I haven't seen much evidence of that yet) as clearly they will have wide appeal and are both good communicators. But I do share this concern:

It was indeed galling to read that Yeoh had been chosen to promote reading among Malaysians, especially the Chinese. And no need to guess who our hot astronaut will be appealing to. ... In this era of 1Malaysia-ism, why are we still choosing ambassadors by race to target a specific demographic? I know we are a nation of contradictions, caught in a cultural crossfire, but this doesn’t make sense. The messages are mixed, but it seems that Malaysians can’t be mixed....

Absolutely!   

And talking about newspaper articles, if you bought this weekend's issue of  The Edge, you would have seen some pretty pictures of yours truly ("writer and educator") in conversation with  ("young journalist") Zedeck Siew and Edge journalist Elaine Lau about the culture of reading (or lack of) in Malaysia. If it is up online later, I will link to it.

Library Books by Post

Is it too much hassle to go to your local public library? Then let your library books come to you. This from the New Sunday Times today :

Come July, book lovers can soon obtain their favourite titles without leaving the comfort of their home.

That's when the U-Library portal, involving seven public libraries, is introduced to facilitate online book borrowing.

The libraries are Selangor Public Library, Negeri Sembilan Public Library, Kuala Lumpur Library, Intan Bukit Kiara Library, Pahang Public Library and the Sarawak State Library.

National Library director-general Datuk Raslin Abu Bakar said the pioneer project was currently in the process of digitalising reading material.

He said the portal would list titles that could be borrowed online, besides those of other books available at the respective libraries.

"Users nationwide can obtain reading material without having to go to the library, and the books will be sent by post to their doorstep," he said at a news conference after launching "Program ABC: Mari Membaca 1Malaysia" here yesterday.

This is all remarkably forward looking - let's just see how it works in practice.

World Book Day

Yesterday was World Book Day in the UK.  (The rest of us celebrate on April 23rd.)  Most of the activities were aimed at school children.  But also ten more titles were released in the excellent Quick Reads series - putting pacy reading material of a manageable length into the hands of adult readers who need to get into their stride as far as books are concerned. Why we haven't seen a serious effort to get these titles in Malaysian bookstores and feature them prominently, I do not know.  I feel that here the need for such material is perhaps even greater.

Victoria Barnsley on The Guardian blog reports on why World Book Day matters more now than ever :

...  if I had just the smallest opportunity to bend the ears of our political leaders, my plea on this World Book Day is that we really make sure that not only do children master literacy but also that we fire their imaginations so they can love and treasure the great power of stories.

I'm sure we also want the same.

No Need to Worry After All About Malaysian Reading Habits

*Phew* Just a few days after Utusan Malaysia was making dire pronouncements about the state of reading in Malaysia, and Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim talking about a new study being needed, someone seems to have russled up with some cheering facts very quickly. More Malaysians it seems, ARE reading :

...  the ministry recorded a whopping 38 million visitors to libraries nationwide, including those in public and private universities, exceeding the 28 million Malaysian population.

(Quite how it is possible to have more library visitors than there are people in the population is pretty interesting, don't you think?  Maybe it can be accounted for by enthusiastic readers joining as many libraries as is physically possible.)  Said Rais at the launch of the Mari Membaca 1Malaysia :

Reading has become an enveloping habit for Malaysians with most reading an average of eight to 12 books per year.

Which if true, is actually a huge improvement on previous reading statistics.  (Though again, how are these figures arrived at?).

Rais further declared that reading online is good but :

 ... we don't want our younger generation to be slaves to the computer monitor. Every three hours of computer usage should be balanced out with an hour of reading books.

And the search for Malaysian personalities to endorse books is on, with possible "icons" being mooted including former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Angkasawan Negara Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Sheikh Shukor; and actress Datuk Michelle Yeoh to play the Oprah role.

Postscript :

Yes, it's official :  film star Datuk Michelle Yeoh has been appointed ambassador for the Information, Communication, and Culture Ministry’s Come and Read 1Malaysia campaign. 

She will return to launch the campaign April 23rd (to nicely coincide with World Book Day) and books in Malay, English and mandarin will be handed out to more than 1,000 schools nationwide.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of books she reads. I had a google around but the only mention of her in connection with books was she apparently likes The Monk Who sold His Ferrari author, Robin Sharma.

 Also appointed - Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who feels strongly about the subject.

Apparently now the search is on for  "a popular Indian ambassador".

Malaysians ... Still Ain't Reading

Utusan Malaysia this week laments the lack of a Malaysian reading culture. Hardly anyone's reading on the LRT (above) despite the launch of the Baca@LRT campaign on Facebook :

or in other public spots sampled.

And it seems that the branch libraries are not really attracting users either.

Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has decided that the answer to the problem is to set up another study to find out about Malaysians' reading habits.

Readers of this blog may remember me getting very cross about the last time a large scale survey was carried out by the National Library because the results were never properly made public and questions about how the data was gathered were never revealed. It would have been useful for academics, teacher-trainers, teachers,  bookshop buyers, and other stakeholders to have had access to that data. (Some of those in the book retail industry anyway disputed the figures that did get quoted.)

One thing that does give me hope is that when you go along to a cheap book sale or to a book fair in the Klang Valley, the venue is invariably packed out. (I'm sure those of you who went to the BookXcess sale today would bear me out.) I think that a lot of people are keen to own books rather than borrow them. 

I suspect that a lot of people don't read in public because it is considered a slightly odd thing to do:  it hasn't become a part of the culture.  I'd go crazy if I were without a book for any length of time, but unless you have a pretty hungry reading habit, you are not going to think like that.

The Read While Waiting Project was a nice idea, but doesn't seem to have come to anything either despite the hype that surrounded it. Pity!

Book Corners for Bus Stations

Some good news from The Star this morning :

The National Library of Malaysia is planning to expand its 1Malaysia Reading Campaign by soon setting up reading corners at selected bus stations.

Its director-general, Datuk Raslin Abu Bakar, said they were in the midst of discussing the idea with the management of the selected bus stations in the Klang Valley and identifying suitable locations for the reading corners.

"The idea to set up reading corners at bus stations came up after our reading corner in Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) Intercity trains, launched on Dec 7, received overwhelming response from passengers."

A Bookseller's Responsibility

Bookseller Abby Wong writes an interesting piece in today's Starmag about how Malaysians :

... are reading more and better books but are still dependent on booksellers’ recommendations and unbiased selections.

And she talks about an role of the bookshop, beyond just having the products available :

Indeed, booksellers – or rather, the book buyers who work for the booksellers – are readers’ readers, and they have a responsibility to love books, to read them and to make sincere recommendations to the public. ... Furthermore, I feel it is the lesser known books that bookstores must bring to their customers’ attention because while their authors might not produce commercial best-sellers, they are often better writers than those who shift thousands of titles at a time.

And then she goes on to list some reads that may well have slipped beneath the radar of local readers (and there is a 30% off voucher in the print edition, in case you decide to check them out.)

Her message to booksellers in general :

Instead of dreading the competition, why not start buying passionately to make Malaysian bookstores as attractive as candy stores to customers of all ages?

Storyteller on a Train

While I'm always moaning about reading campaigns in Malaysia never really taking off in any way that neither I nor the readers of this blog can see, I really applaud the National Library for its latest initiative.

The Star today reports that 90 children were taken on a four-hour train ride filled with story-telling, reading and singing of folk songs aboard KTM’s Sinaran Pagi as a prelude to the 1Malaysia Reading Campaign. During the journey from KL to Gemas in Negri Sembilan, the kids were entertained by singer Nurul Huda Abdul Wahab and Japanese children’s story-teller Saki Sasamori who has been resident in Malaysia for the past 15 years.

I hope this isn't a one off experiment ... it would be so nice to have to have something like this this continue.

Crisis in the News Media

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges gives us some truly staggering statistics about how newspaper readership is declining in the US. In a publication called News Media in Crisis (published by the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover), he says that :

One reason for the decline of newspaper circulation is that 42 million Americans are illiterate and roughly 50 million more are semi-literate. What’s more 80 percent of U.S. households last year did not buy a book. ... The rates of illiteracy or semi-literacy - meaning people reading at a fourth or fifth grade level - now comprise one-third of the United States and even those who are technically literate opt into a system where they get most of their information through images - images which are of course skillfully manipulated.

He further believes that with the decline in newspapers and the decline of a literature culture, American society:

... is essentially walking into a world of moral nihilism, where we no longer embrace values.

The most chilling statistic of all though :

What we’re seeing is not just the death of newsprint or the death of print, but the rise in corporate hands of essentially the obliteration and destruction of our open society. Virtually everything that we see, read, and hear is now controlled by roughly eight corporations.

Putting the Fun Back in Reading

There's so much emphasis on literacy these days that I think people have forgotten or overlooked the joy of reading, ie, the simple pleasure of reading or listening to a good story – if they ever knew it in the first place.

Where’s the fun gone? asks Daphne Lee in today's Starmag :

It seems to me that many parents want their children to read but they seem to be interested only in the mechanics of reading. They don’t seem to understand that reading to a child will cultivate a love for stories and books, and this might, in turn, encourage a child to want to learn to read.

Something that I think very much needs saying, but I wonder if parents are prepared to listen?

Why Awards Matter

Something like the Readers Choice Awards helps to raise public awareness, and this surely encourages writers to get their work published ... But the most crucial element is the encouragement (the nomination) gives writers. It will encourage them to improve – without high quality writing, the rest is just superfluous. Good writing is the lifeblood of the whole publishing industry.

Chong Ton Sin, managing director of book distributors GerakBudaya is among those interviewed in Starmag today about how awards help boost the local publishing industry. He also talks about how he thinks reading could be encouraged in Malaysia.

More about the Readers Choice Awards today here. Robert Raymer and I were just over in Amcorp Mall where of course we made a visit to Popular Bookstores to vote. What surprised me was the assistant asking us how many forms we wanted! (Could hear Robert thinking, "Hundreds and hundreds so all my students can vote for me.")

Other things in today's Starmag :

Elizabeth Tai talks to Karim Raslan about his new book, and enjoys a tour of the apartment where he writes, with all its disturbing art ...

Leon Wing reviews Robert Bolaño's 2666 ...

Book City Project to Go Ahead

This from Bernama :

The Book City, which the government plans to set up by end of this year, will provide an avenue for publishers and writers to expand the scope and quality of their work, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.

He said that the project, coordinated by the Education Ministry, would also be an avenue for the country's literary fans to enjoy quality books and spur the country's book industry to greater heights.

"We already have a building in Kuala Lumpur which will be turned into a Teachers' Museum and Book City. We will start the project by end of this year at the cost of RM20 million ..."

He said interested parties could rent a space to display their publications at the Book City.

Muhyiddin who is Education Minister, also said that the ministry was carrying out studies to improve literature curriculum in school.

"We are looking into the types of books to be used and for which level. Literature is taught in secondary school and at university level, so we want to coordinate the curriculum so that there will be continuity," he said.

To a question, Muhyiddin said the government normally would not block the entry of literary works from abroad so long as they did not create problems for the readers.

The Book City project was proposed back in 2006, and I had several questions and reservations back then. (And I have to point out, splitting semantic hairs, that a single building is hardly a "city" ...) But I do hope that something good comes of this ...

I am also glad that studies are being carried out on the study of literature in schools. Let's hope for some texts the students can really enjoy and plenty of support for teachers. But I'm not too clear what the Muhyiddin means by saying the Ministry plans to coordinate literature studies in schools with those at the universities :

... to ensure the teaching of literature in schools remains relevant to the aspiration to build a nation that is not only progressive, but united and peaceful ...

Can, and even should, literature be looked at in these terms?

It's good that a journalist asked about the censorship of foreign books (yes, keep up the pressure!) but what exactly does "as long as they did not create a problem for readers" actually mean? Vague vague vague!!

Sunday Shorts

I'm willing to admit this to you, my dear reader. I am such a voracious consumer of books that I used to steal in order to satisfy my need.

Former book buyer with Kinokuniya Abby Wong starts an occasional column of things book related in Starmag and begins by telling us about her obsession. Another avid reader, Christine Jalleh tells a heartwarming story about how a stranger in a shopping mall turned Book Angel. (And, you know, we could do with a few more of those!) Elsewhere, Kuan Guat Choo hobnobs with ghosts. Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reiterates the message that Malaysians don't read enough, as he launches the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2009. (But there's no word about where his statistics about reading are taken from. Perhaps it is the mythical National Library Survey?) And Datuk Lat gets orchestrated.

Free books for London Commuters

The BBC reports on a great new initiative to encourage reading in London. Stalls outside five London tube stations hand out free books to commuters once a month, and they can be returned via drop boxes the following month.

Choose What You Read was started by Alfie Boyd and his friend Claire Wilson as an alternative to the free newspapers currently given out daily. Each commuter is encouraged to add their name to a list of readers on the inside cover. (BBC video here.)

But why not tap into the already very successful Bookcrossing scheme instead of setting up something new, asks Richard Lea on The Guardian blog.

One blogger goes along to help out.